Something interesting about the iMessage stats is that though lots of people use it, many many more messages are sent through WhatsApp. Apple released their stats of 300B messages sent since iMessage went live (~1yr), while WhatsApp is sending 10B per day, 300B per year. The stat I want to see are the number of top-tier "iPhone-killers" (or loosely-comparable Android phones for the iPhones that are available now 4/4S/5) that are sold, so we can exclude the crappy...

I can see Apple having a way to disable them or not activating them, but that doesn't prevent the sellers from getting rid of their stockpile. Before buying an mini from a 3rd party, will getting the serial number first and running a check on Apple's site help identify these units?

I was thinking it would the other way and we'd see a Ferrari that's a rectangle with rounded corners, complete with similar shaped steering wheel, console switches, dials, and buttons, and of course the rims and tires have to have the same shape too.

It's as usable as your iPad 2, which means very usable. It might have the occasional lag and apps don't open as fast, etc, but it's still very much sufficient for what's out there right now. Everyone is focused on retina displays because everyone has been spoiled the last few years with them. If you use a retina display of any sort for long periods of time, and then look at a non-retina display, you can easily notice the pixelation and roughness of text. If you've been...